By Charlotte K. Jarmy
What I really love about December are the smiles and happy faces all around us. OK, I don’t enjoy the brisk weather that keeps me from my water aerobics mornings at the Y. I try to overcome this loss by an abundance of energy, wiggling my legs in time to music, doing leg lifts and lunges while my green tea warms in the microwave. Every few minutes help, and I do drink a lot of tea. I went to the pool this week and enjoyed the release of energy and the lively holiday feeling.
December moments have to be treasured; they are over so quickly in this busiest of months. We spent two exciting hours watching Smuin Ballet’s Christmas performance. Those leaps, those charming costumes, first white, then red, those comic moments - all the young, graceful dancers made my heart soar, if not my body.
I shared convivial moments at lunch with friends first from the aqua-aerobics class and then from the Federated Women’s Club of Los Altos, during which we enjoyed the expressive voices of the Madrigal Singers from Mountain View High School. Watching those singers in their vintage costumes, using their facial expressions as well as their voices to convince us of their sincerity, made me nostalgic for my teaching days.
Driving around Los Altos and other community areas gave me that expectant feeling of pleasure through bright lights, busy shoppers, shining candles and drifting music from various sources. We even watched the old, corny movie “Miracle on 34th Street.”
Above all else comes the impulse to share our delight in this time of openness and helping others through the efforts of organized donors such as the Town Crier Holiday Fund, the Federated Women’s Club, our congregation at Beth Am and the generosity of many individuals who cram barrels with food for the hungry or give of their time to entertain sick children. All through my years of high school, I went to hospitals with a school group to sing for little ones and distribute gifts. The gifts came back to us with the warmth of their smiles and applause.
Bless the dozens of catalogs that clog our mail box and enable me to do effortless shopping for the family Hanukkah celebration coming a week before Christmas. Gifts are here, but I don’t enjoy the wrapping. The older I get, the more holiday bags I buy to save my back. I don’t mind asking the family to return the bags, either! We will lift our wine glasses to celebrate Ron’s promotion and our growing hopes for a change in the war in Iraq that will allow our troops to come home.
There are also, however, dark moments in this joy-filled month. One came with the news from an Air Force friend who did some research and discovered that the young captain who wrote the letter in 1948 had actually died about the same time as my late husband, with whom he had shared experiences in the bloody 100th Bomb Group. There went my hopes of returning his letter and receiving one back dated 2006.
Another sad moment came with the phone call from my dear friend Bernice, who tried to tell me something “beautiful” but had to give up in frustration when the words weren’t there. I shed a few tears for her and my own loss in December 1970, when my son left home forever. I remember him humming “The Sounds of Silence.”
Even so, December remains a lovely month, with the gold leaves of our birch tree slowly drifting down, leaving me with the knowledge that winter is simply a time to rest and recover.
